


As Old As You Feel

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, NSFW, Playtime 'verse, Prompt Fic, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 12:18:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12457641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: A peripheral fic in the Playtime ‘verse, filling an old prompt. Set in the past, before Belle and Gold started their little roleplay adventures. Gold is feeling old and Belle sets about showing him just how she feels about him.





	As Old As You Feel

 

Gold can’t quite believe the turn that his life has taken over the last six months since Belle French moved into the down and had, against all the odds stacked against him, decided that she liked him, wanted to go out with him, wanted to kiss him, and even more amazingly, wanted to sleep with him. Their relationship has been on a physical level for a month or so now, with regular little sleepovers at Belle’s apartment above the library or in his own home. So far, all has been well, but the two-decade gap between their ages is something that no-one can deny, and Gold even less so than most. Belle is young, athletic, a former dancer and figure-skater. Her body is lithe and toned and beautiful, and Gold knows that when the clothes come off and the lights are turned out, he cannot possibly compare. He’s in his mid-forties, he has an injury that he will never be off medication for, and he finds it hard to walk without his cane, or at least a brace on his badly broken ankle: an old would that was never set correctly given the nature and extent of the damage. He’s lucky he didn’t lose his foot, but sometimes, on nights like tonight when the dull ache will not subside no matter what he does to try and stop it, he doesn’t feel so lucky. It’s in the moments like these that he thinks with bitterness that Belle could do so much better than the lame old man she has chosen to love.

He pours himself another finger of whiskey, staring at the muted TV but not taking in any of what’s going on, his mind far away in dark and dismal places, stewing over things that he’d rather not think about. Belle is due over any minute now with Thai takeout, and it’s an unspoken assumption that a cosy dinner will turn into a cosy make-out session on the couch that leaves him feeling like a randy teenager again. And although he might feel young, his ankle is reminding him that he is not, and that the make-out session on the couch can’t turn into sex on the couch if he wants to be able to walk in the morning. Dark thoughts swirl around in his mind, the voice of his ex-wife cold and cruel in his ears as he plays the words over and over on repeat: _Useless. Cripple. Failure. Not good enough._

Gold knows that Belle has never said those words to him. Belle has never even thought these words. Well, in so far as he can tell. Belle has never given any indication that she is anything less than perfectly satisfied with every aspect of their relationship, including the physical. But old hurts run deep, and Gold doesn’t need Belle to think of these things when he’s already spending so much energy thinking about them himself. More than once over the past few months, he’s thought about ending it to spare himself the pain of rejection down the line, but then he sees how genuinely happy Belle seems to be with him, and he relents, because she makes him so happy too, and he desperately does not want to return to the lonely, isolated existence that he had before she brought so much light into his life. He’s not used to optimism, and the thought that Belle might never say those dreadful words and might be happy with him for a long time to come is an alien one to him.

The doorbell rings and he goes to answer it. As expected, it’s Belle, holding up a bottle of wine in one hand and a bag of fragrant Thai rice and noodles in the other, a sweet and slightly cheeky little smile on her face. It’s an expression he recognises, the promise of things to come, and in spite of himself he returns her little smirk, letting her inside and following her through to the living room at a slow limp. She’s already setting things up on the coffee table, spooning khao pad and coconut prawns onto the waiting plates and settling herself on the sofa. She sits with her legs tucked up under her, perfectly at ease, and Gold realises just how much of a fixture she has become in his house. He can’t lose her.

Perhaps that’s the moment he realises he truly loves this remarkable woman with all his heart. And he thinks – or at least he hopes – that she feels the same way.

They channel hop whilst they eat, passing comment on various programmes that they come across but never settling to watch anything properly until Belle find the last half of an over the top action film and snuggles in close to his side to watch the stylised, slow motion explosions and heroes leaping out of helicopters. The heat of her body pressed against his so snugly is doing unspeakable things for Gold’s self-control, but the ever-present pain in his ankle is constantly reminding him of what he was thinking about before Belle arrived.

The credits on the film begin to roll and the screen blinks out to black as Belle tosses the remote onto the coffee table amid the take-out cartons and twists in his arms, her cheeky little smile taking on a far more sultry and seductive light.

“What do you say to living out our own Hollywood ending?” she purrs, slipping her arms around his neck and pulling him in for a kiss. Gold doesn’t respond save to pull her in closer, his hand creeping up her thigh where her legs rest over his lap, stroking little circles over her supple legs and ass through her jeans. They continue to kiss for a long while, and Gold becomes aware that Belle’s got several of his shirt buttons undone – one-handed, he might add, impressed at her dexterity – and has slipped her hand inside the fabric, tracing her fingers over his skin and flicking at a nipple. He gives a little moan against her lips as his cock begins to show distinct interest in the proceedings, and Belle giggles, working her way lower and kissing over his jaw and neck.

“You’re so tense,” she says presently, looking up at him with a little frown line between her brows as he hands come down on his tightly-set shoulders, kneading the stiff muscles there. “Bad day?”

“Better for seeing you,” Gold replies with a smile, but Belle’s concerned expression remains.

“There’s something else, I can tell.”

That’s one of Belle’s great gifts, and no doubt one that comes in handy in her job dealing with members of the public all day long in the way she does. She can read people as easily as she can read one of her books and it’s impossible to try and keep things from her, especially when the things that are being kept from her are ostensibly for her own good. Gold sighs.

“My ankle’s bad today,” he says. “It’s always bad when the weather is turning. I guess I’m just feeling my age.”

“Oh sweetheart, I’m sorry that you’re hurting.” She kisses his lips again, tenderly but still with undisguised want and need behind her actions. “Can I do anything to make it better?” She grins. “Maybe ride you until you forget you have feet?”

It’s tempting, but it doesn’t do anything for the very real issue at the heart of the matter here.

“It’s not the pain,” Gold says. “I can live with that, I can deal with it. I’ve dealt with it for long enough. It’s more the reminder.”

“Of your accident?”

Gold shakes his head. “No. Of how old I am and how incomplete I am and how you could do so much better than me.”

There’s silence for a few agonisingly long moments and Gold is half-convinced that Belle is about to agree with his statement and walk out of his life forever.

“You really think that?” Belle asks eventually. Gold nods slowly. “I don’t,” she adds. “I don’t think that I could do any better than you. In fact, I think you’re one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. Perhaps the best.”

“Belle, I’m hardly heartthrob material.” Gold holds up his cane where it rests against the arm of the sofa.

“You don’t know what makes my heart throb,” Belle replies. “Right now, it’s you. So you’re older than me, so you have an injured ankle. So what?”

Those two words, so simple and so flippant, are nonetheless extremely powerful for Gold, for the simple reason that they are spoken with such a fierce conviction that cannot be faked. The kiss that Belle gives him is heady and passionate, full of emotion, and by the time she breaks away, the frown line between her brows is gone, replaced with her sneaky, sexy little smirk.

“I’ve had an idea,” she says in a sing-song voice, and Gold is all ears. “Why don’t we go upstairs and I’ll show you just what I think of all this ‘I’m too old for you’ nonsense?”

Gold nods, dumbstruck but still irretrievably eager, and his cock surges back into life in his trousers, ready to join in whatever Belle has planned. She slithers off his lap and holds out a hand to pull him off the sofa.

“Come on,” she says, eyeing up his bulging crotch. “The sooner the better if your pants are anything to go by.”

Gold has to laugh and together they make their way up the stairs to his bedroom. Belle switches the lights on.

“I want to see you,” she says simply. “I want to see all of you. Now, get on the bed, and I’ll show you exactly how I feel about you.”

Gold obeys readily and once he’s settled comfortably on the sheets, Belle practically pounces on him, her mouth seeking out his with renewed vigour as she tackles the rest of the buttons on his shirt and spreads the two halves, running her hands over his slim chest and flicking at his nipples, eliciting a sharp hiss of pleasure. But Belle doesn’t stop, fire and fervour in her motions as she swiftly divests him of the rest of his clothes and curls her fingers around his length, stroking his cock to full hardness. She presses a little kiss to the tip of him and grins slyly before moving away, leaving Gold feeling terribly bereft of her touch. She strips off her own clothes quickly, but even though she’s not intending to purposefully tease, Gold still finds the sight of her body being revealed to him to be incredibly erotic. She cups her breasts, running her fingertips over hard, puckered nipples that Gold longs to kiss and lick.

“You see these?” she says huskily. “That’s all you, anticipation of doing this with you. And here.” She reaches down between her legs and touches carefully, showing fluid shining on her fingers. “That’s all for you too. So you can forget all this about feeling too old and not being good enough right now, mister.”

Gold nods, and Belle gets back on the bed, crawling up the covers towards him. He reaches out to touch her but she bats his hand away with a playful smile.

“Oh no, this is for you. I’m going to fuck all the insecurities out of you first and then you can touch me.”

To that end, she straddles him, taking his cock in a firm grip and sliding it along her folds; Gold throws his head back, watching her wriggling with arousal through narrowed eyes. Finally she lines him up with her slick entrance and sinks down onto him achingly slowly, her own eyes fluttering closed as she takes him in to the hilt, bracing her hands on his chest as she begins to move, rolling her hips into his, grinding down against him and gradually picking up the pace until she’s riding him hard and fast, her lips parted in pleasure and her fingernails digging into his skin, the bite of it giving him just enough edge to hold on and prolong this wonderful feeling.

But it can’t be prolonged forever, and he cries out Belle’s name as he spills himself deep inside her. She doesn’t slow, her tight channel still milking him dry as she brings one hand down to touch herself where they’re joined, and a moment later she comes with his cock still inside her, her inner walls fluttering around him, the sensation making his head spin in the best way. They’re both panting hard as they finally come apart and Belle flops down onto his chest, stealing a messy, sweaty kiss, hair getting in the way and tongues and teeth clashing, but for all its imperfections, it is in its own way, perfect.

Just like him, he realises.

“Believe me now?” Belle asks. Gold nods, and her little smirk returns as she nestles in close to his side and he traces little patterns in the sheen of perspiration that coats her back.

“I’ll never doubt you again,” he says earnestly, and they continue to kiss for a long while. There’s something more that needs to be said, and there’s no time like the present. “I love you, Belle. So much.”

Belle’s smile could light up the whole room when she looks up at him.

“I love you too.”


End file.
